What TMA can learn from MMA

MMA (mixed martial arts) is without a doubt the biggest thing to happen to the martial arts in the last few decades. It has seen the martial arts become mainstream as a spectator sport for the very first time and it has had a very big influence on the martial arts generally.

In some quarters it is now common to divide the martial arts into the two camps of MMA and TMA (traditional martial arts), with each seen as being opposed to the other. The more “fundamentalist” MMA practitioners see traditional martial arts as archaic and ineffective systems, with the more “militant” traditional martial artists seeing MMA as lacking in discipline and depth. Personally, I think both of these conflicting viewpoints are wrong.